The Manehattan Project

Antique Shop, Day One, 1:10pm.

Twilight and Silent Watch grunted as they struggled to lift up and quietly move the desk in front of the door to the antique shop. The front windows had been blocked with curtains.

Starlight looked through one of the openings between the curtains at the large number of infected out in the street, they were going to be stuck for a while. Starlight looked back over at Twilight and Silent, who had now successfully barricaded the door.

"Okay, we should be safe, as long as we stay quiet." Silent said as he wiped sweat off his forehead. The two other ponies and the dragon still in the room exhaled in relief before Twilight noticed that they were missing somepony.

"Where's Pinkie?" Twilight asked quietly.

"Right here." Pinkie said as she entered the room from the back area. She looked sad, not like herself at all. Her coat was slightly paler and her normally poofy mane was deflated.

"Pinkie? What's wrong?" Starlight asked walking over to her. Pinkie Pie said nothing before raising up her hoof and showing Starlight the bite. Starlight gasped, followed by further gasps from the rest.

"No..." Twilight said quietly after seeing the bite.

"So, what happens to me now?" Pinkie asked. She looked at each occupant. Starlight opened her mouth to say something, but nothing came out, she had no plans. With no magic, she couldn't heal it, and after seeing what happened with those bitten in the museum, she feared the worst.

Twilight was on the verge of tears. Already thinking about what was going to happen in the near future to one of her closest friends.

Spike slouched down against the counter, his hands covering his mouth. He looked like he had just seen a ghost, or something worse, like he had just been hit with terrible news.

Silent stepped forward and drew his gun. Twilight noticed this and it snapped her out of her sadness.

"What are you doing!?" Twilight said at a more elevated tone than normal. Silent Watch lowered his gun back to his hip.

"Look, I know this looks bad, but you saw the ponies in the museum, how quickly they turned, if we don't do something, she's going to kill us!" Silent argued. Twilight took out her own gun.

"We aren't killing her." Twilight said sternly before turning to Starlight. "Starlight, take Pinkie into the back room, Pinkie, lie down, I'll think of something, I promise." Twilight explained.

Starlight nodded and guided Pinkie back into the shop's office. Twilight then turned to Silent, who had now holstered his gun and she smacked him, making him let out a startled and whiny "OW!"

"That's for even considering shooting my friend!" Twilight scolded.

"Well, do you have any better idea Princess?" Silent asked sarcastically. Twilight managed to resist the urge to smack him again and went over to the counter, where she sat down next to Spike and draped a foreleg over his shoulder and pulled him close to try to comfort him.

Silent sat down as well, with his back against a shelf. They stayed in awkward silence for a while before Silent spoke up.

"I'm sorry okay, I just feel more stressed more than I've ever felt in my entire life." Silent said.

Twilight stayed quiet, she just nodded slightly. Her mind was racing, with thoughts about everything they needed to do, they needed to somehow save Pinkie, get to the others, and get out of the city while avoiding getting eaten or turned into one of them. Twilight then decided to try to make small talk.

"So, Silent Watch, tell me a little about yourself, since we didn't get any chance to back at the museum." Twilight said. Silent scoffed slightly.

"I'm just a boring old security officer who works at a museum, there's nothing interesting or special about me." he said. This made Twilight frown.

"Everypony is special in their own way Silent." Twilight said. This made Silent chuckle a little.

"Don't say that, that sounds so cheesy and cliche." Silent said.

"It's true though." Spike said, finally speaking up after being remaining quiet.

"Well, if you insist. I'm from Fillydelphia, I'm from a big family. My father was a Unicorn and my mother was an Earth pony. I have 3 older brothers, they're all unicorns, while I got the short end of the stick as you can see."

Twilight silently listened.

"When I was 18, I joined the police academy in Canterlot, but I never really pursued it, so I just drifted from job to job around Equestria until I joined the Museum Security team about a year ago. I saw one of my coworkers get eaten right in front of me when I was looking around the Museum for survivors." Silent continued, standing up and walking around the counter as he kept talking.

"Sounds like you had it rough." Twilight said. Silent merely chuckled.

"Yeah, maybe, but let me tell ya, it's actually great to be the only Earth pony among 3 unicorn brothers. I'm the strongest guy in the family!" Silent boasted as he rummaged around behind the counter. "Aha!" he said suddenly. This made Twilight and Spike stand up to see what he was doing. Silent then dropped a radio onto the counter.

"How did you know that was back there?" Twilight asked.

"I knew a guy who worked here, sometimes he would play music during his shift." Silent explained as he plugged the radio in and began to tune it. Twilight joined him behind the counter and began to help by moving the antenna before they eventually found a signal.

"This is an emergency broadcast from the Equestrian Military-" the announcer through the radio started to speak.

"We did it!" Twilight said, happily clapping her hooves together. Then, Starlight emerged from the back room.

"Did what?" Starlight asked.

"We go this radio fixed, maybe now we can figure out what's happening." Silent explained.

"How's Pinkie?" Twilight asked. Starlight then gave her a sad look.

"She's asleep now, on the couch in the office. She's getting paler and she coughed up blood when she laid down." Starlight explained sadly. This made Twilight's heart skip a beat. Pinkie wasn't getting out of this, was she? Twilight tried to shake this from her mind when the announcer spoke again.

"This is an emergency broadcast for anypony still trapped from this mysterious event. This is all we know. At precisely 12:00 noon today, a large red mist emitted from somewhere starting in Manehattan, and spread across nearly the entire Eastern half of Equestria, the mist has dampened Unicorn magic, and Pegasus flight. And not long after, several ponies of pale complexion and hollow eyes began to appear, and attack other ponies, turning them pale and dead-eyed. The cities affected by this event are Manehattan, Baltimare, Fillydelphia, and Horston among others. If you are still in any of these cities, listen. Avoid contact with the infected, the way one becomes infected is through bites. Find a place to hold up, preferably with food and water, and await further instructions, the Military is doing all it can in this time of crisis. We will keep you posted through frequent updates."

With that, the radio went silent. The ponies and dragon all just stared at eachother before Twilight eventually spoke.

"Well, now we know this isn't just in Manehattan."